Keeping Her
by duckduck
Summary: Emily and Paige romance post season 2


_Oh great…not what I need…my mom quizzing me about the 'seriousness' of my relationship with Maya. _

"Mom, don't, please, I don't want to talk about it…"

"Emily, I just, I want to know…"

"If we slept together? How is that any of your business?"

Pam flinched at her daughter's words. "Emily, I am your Mom, I love you…" Emily leant against the kitchen work surface and closed her eyes, Pam continued. "I need to know how serious you two were, so I know how to best help you." _Great, this is just great._ Emily couldn't see a way out of the conversation without giving her mother an answer and she didn't want to lie. Not anymore. "We…did." Emily stumbled through her admission but couldn't bring herself to look at her mother. After opening her eyes again she settled her gaze on the patterns in the marble surface. Pam attempted to stifle a gasp, but it was just audible enough for Emily to hear it. Pam hadn't even thought it a possibility, she knew they were back together, what ever that meant, but having sex, she definitely hadn't expected that.

"I see…" Pam began, before Emily cut her off. "Do you?" She asked as she turned to face her mother. "No, not really, Pam conceded. She looked her daughter straight in the eye and offered an embarrassed smile. Both women blushed. "I know you…you're…gay, but I didn't really expect you to…well…" Pam blushed again. "Have sex. With a woman."

_Yep, this is just great, my life at an all time low. _

"Mom!" Emily exclaimed as she slid onto a barstool. "I am, I mean, I was, in love with her. We went through this with the police when they found her, you know we were girlfriends again." Emily pushed back a tear. It had been four months since it happened but it still chilled her to the bone when she thought about it. "We were sleeping together. It just, it got to that point where we couldn't…not, any more, you understand that, right?" Pam, still visibly shocked by Emily's disclosure noticed a wistful smile spread across her daughter's face, and softened. "And was it..." Pam took a large gulp from her coffee mug, "…was it, how you expected it to be?"

Pam was way out of her comfort zone, but had decided to continue, she had opened that particular can of worms after all. Emily beamed. "It was better." _Well, she did ask…_ "But it's private." Emily choked as tears came flooding from her eyes. "Oh, baby." Pam, moved to her daughter and enveloped her in a comforting embrase. "Let it all out." Pam began to cry as well. "I wish I could have saved you from this…"

...xxxxxx...

Emily put her head in her hands as she blushed. Hanna, who was sitting opposite her friend at the school cafeteria table, squealed with delight. "I can't believe she asked you that! No wait, I can't believe you didn't tell us…" "Oh, come on Han" Spencer interjected "Of course they were!" A wry smile crossed Spencer's face as she added "You were at my house that night too!" Emily blushed again. "Told ya!" Spencer enjoyed being right a little too much sometimes.

"Oh please!" Emily sighed. "Aria, make them stop."

"Ok, ok, no more teasing." Spencer promised. "But seriously, your Mom didn't freak out, that is BIG news."

Emily looked down at her salad. "I think she might have done, secretly." "Yeah right, she's probably in counselling right now!" "Han! Not helping!" Aria finally stepped up to help her friend, but merely succeeded on pushing the onus of the conversation onto herself. "So…" Hanna began, "You still haven't told us about you and…are you or aren't you?" "Oh they so are!" Spencer exclaimed. "I bet he's…"

"Not any of your business." Aria chastised her friends as she stood up to tidy her tray away. "I'm so thinking about eating lunch someplace…not with you!"

"Hi girls!" Aria spun around as she heard her Mom's voice. "Mom! Is everything alright?" She asked quickly while the other girls silently noted that this was secret code for 'stop bothering me with my friends'. "I just came by to say hi. Oh and Emily, your Mom asked me to tell you that she'll be late home this afternoon…she and I are meeting for a coffee."

The girls smiled politely until Ella was out of earshot, then each one opened their mouths to speak, but Hanna was the first of the four friends to get her words out.

"Oooh, tasty. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. What do you think wins, girl on girl or older man?"

The group scowled back at her in disbelief. "Well? What? I only said what everyone else was thinking."

The bell sounded, signalling the end of lunch, and the cafeteria sprung into life. Emily was glad of the sound of scraping chairs and clunking crockery. She loved her friends, but sometimes she longed for peace and quiet. In a daze she walked slowly to her locker.

"Hey…"

"Hey…"

"Em…"

Jarred from her thoughts Emily looked up to see Paige smiling at her.

"Hi."

"Wow you were miles away."

"Sorry…"

"No, don't be…I mean, I'm sorry for interrupting."

"Its fine…I wasn't…"

"I just wondered if you wanted to swim later?"

Emily hesitated before replying and Paige's smile fell from her face. "Actually, I'd love that."

"So that's a yes then?"

"It is…"

"Last one to the pool gets to take the other for a drink afterwards."

"Ok, no wait…You know I have Chem… not fair…"

Paige turned and smiled as she walked away.

"Loser!" She mouthed at her friend.

Emily was struck with a sudden realisation as she stood in the hallway watching Paige disappear…_oh no, not good, I'm not…this can't…Hell, I still have feelings for her._


End file.
